Your Berks, Bucks and Oxon Wedding news and ideas from around the county

Enjoy a cosy Christmas stay with Sutton Hotel Collection

The Sutton Hotel Collection extends a warm invitation to guests to celebrate Christmas in their three distinctive and quintessentially British hotels, The Queens Hotel Cheltenham, The Castle Hotel Windsor and The Francis Hotel Bath. Experience stylish settings, the enchantment of Christmas traditions, captivating entertainment, and exceptional cuisine as each hotel adds its unique touch of elegance to this cherished day in the calendar. Celebrate good times at the iconic Queens Hotel Cheltenham. Step back in time in this Grade II listed building, whilst enjoying all the modern comforts of an exquisite boutique hotel. From parties to a festive afternoon tea, there's something for everyone. Enjoy delicious food and a cosy, warm welcome.

Expert reveals her ultimate tips on how to have a hen party on a budget

Getting married is an exciting time in your life, however, sometimes it can cost a small fortune. You might even be feeling the guilt of your loved ones having to fund their attendance to your events, during a cost of living crisis. Life insurance broker, Reassured polled 1,500 people to reveal the costs behind attending a hen party. To be exact, you'll be out of pocket by £979 for attending the hen party. From a boozy weekend staycation in a local city or jetting off to somewhere sunnier, the costs clearly build up more than you first imagined. However, some brides seem to have no regrets with over two-thirds (68%) being glad to have had a hen party, with 65% having high expectations and expecting their bridesmaid to organise the party for them as a surprise!

The Bibury Duck Race set to take place on Boxing Day

A Cotswold tradition, the Bibury Village Duck Race, now in its 35th year, returns on Boxing Day with hundreds of tourists, and a new 'live stream' element is expected. The Bibury Duck Race has become a beloved tradition, attracting locals and visitors to the idyllic River Coln for a festive get-together. The event starts at 11 am when the starting guns signal the race's beginning - and 3,000 rubber ducks are released onto the river. Spectators can cheer on their adopted ducks as they race downstream, creating a visual spectacle in the village described as "Britain's most beautiful". New for 203, the organisers are also offering a 'live stream' via Instagram - which has already attracted interest from across the globe.

How to plan a wedding speech

Matthew Shaw, a leading wedding and events planner and founder of sauveur. - a superb events and creative studio - reveals his top tips to help you plan your big-day speech. Speeches can sprawl quite easily when you're trying to cover so much and this makes them difficult to follow. When you first start planning your speech it's definitely helpful to throw lots of ideas around but then try to focus on an overall theme or approach. This could be a personality trait, great jokes, or a more heartfelt approach, but it will help you, and the guests, if there is a clear angle to follow. In turn, this will help your guests follow along and you will be gifted with a better response from the room.

Fever-Tree's new cocktail mixers: the ultimate hosting hack

With Christmas and New Year being the key season for popping the question, there's double the amount of celebrations at this time of year! Get ready to elevate your festive hosting with Fever-Tree's innovative cocktail mixers, new for winter 2023. In a year where approximately 100,000 proposals will happen from Christmas to New Year, and 64% of consumers enjoy cocktails at home, busy hosts can now have it all serving Mojitos, Margaritas, and Espresso Martinis. The line-up: Fever-Tree Classic Mojito Mixer: Fresh Mexican Limes meet Moroccan Mint for a zesty, refreshing twist. Just add rum and ice, stir, and craft a Mojito masterpiece.

Enjoy the festivities at Atul Kochhar Restaurants

Chef Atul Kochhar's restaurants in Buckinghamshire and beyond have shared their Christmas and New Year's Eve menus and offers for the festive season. Offering unrivalled options for Christmas and New Year's Eve, plus festive lunches and parties, the restaurants' festive menus will ensure you have a very Merry Christmas and a happy start to 2024. Chef Atul Kochhar said, "Christmas is always one of the busiest periods for hospitality venues, from Christmas Day and New Year's Eve to Christmas parties, lunches between Christmas shopping and beyond, so my restaurant's festive offerings must be absolutely world-class, offering something delicious for everybody".

Feeling peachy with Pantone's Colour of the Year 2024 announcement

It's here, Pantone's Colour of the Year announcement for 2024 is... Peach Fuzz! We take a look at what this means for weddings! "A cozy peach hue softly nestled between pink and orange, PANTONE 13-1023 Peach Fuzz brings belonging, inspires recalibration, and an opportunity for nurturing, conjuring up an air of calm, offering us a space to be, feel, and heal and to flourish from whether spending time with others or taking the time me to enjoy a moment by ourselves," says Leatrice Eiseman, executive director, Pantone Color Institute. "Drawing comfort from PANTONE 13-1023 Peach Fuzz, we can find peace from within, impacting our wellbeing. An idea as much as a feeling, PANTONE 13-1023 Peach Fuzz awakens our senses to the comforting presence of tactility and cocooned warmth."

Why are prenups no longer the reserve of the wealthy?

Wenup, a collaborative online provider of relationship agreements, conducted a comprehensive analysis of its first 120 customers. This data offers valuable insights into the changing landscape of prenuptial agreements, capturing shifting trends among couples from diverse backgrounds and providing a glimpse into the evolving dynamics of modern relationships. Recent celebrity divorces, involving well-known personalities such as Britney Spears, Sophie Turner, and Joe Jonas have cast a spotlight on prenuptial agreements. Despite their often sensationalised portrayal in the media, prenups are no longer the exclusive domain of the rich and famous.

Rugby World Cup winner Phil Vickery will unveil new Cotswold café

Rugby World Cup winner Phil Vickery will unveil the new Cotswold café at Birdland Park & Gardens this Thursday the 7th of December. The former front-row favourite at Gloucester, who has since built a burgeoning foodie career after winning Celebrity Masterchef in 2011, will be at the Cotswold attraction to endorse the new-look eatery. The Nest Kitchen and Café officially opens on Thursday and there will be a special 10 per cent discount over the weekend to mark the occasion. Vickery, a former England captain who played for Gloucester for 11 years, now works for food service company Creed, which will supply the café with a delicious selection of hot and cold options.

Overwhelmed planning a wedding? A leading wedding planner shares top tips

Matthew Shaw, a leading wedding and events planner and founder of sauveur. - a superb events and creative studio - is here to reveal his Top Tips to help you plan and feel calm, confident and importantly, excited for the big day. ASK FOR HELP: I would always advise considering if you would like to engage a planner at the beginning of the process. They are true experts in their field and will help organise, inspire, and de-stress the process for you. There are planners available for varying wedding budgets so do reach out and request more information.

Weddings Wrapped 2023 - wedding special

With Spotify Wrapped 2023 having just dropped, Encore Musicians, the UK's largest musician bookings platform has analysed 2,300 song requests by newlyweds to see the most requested songs and artists for weddings in 2023. They also surveyed 1,000 of its customers and musicians to discover the UK's favourite and least favourite songs to hear at weddings. Although Ed Sheeran's "Perfect" ranked as the most common song for first dances, it also ranked as the second least popular song to hear at weddings with one in seven ranking it as their least favourite.

Could you have to pay inheritance tax on a wedding gift?

Before the big day comes around, whether you are a guest giving a present or contributing to the cost of the honeymoon, or perhaps a relative considering helping towards the cost of the wedding itself, you ought to consider the inheritance tax implications of making such gifts. James Mabey, partner at law firm Winckworth Sherwood advises on the inheritance tax implications of wedding gifts. In the UK, if you die within seven years of making a gift, inheritance tax may be payable on the value of the gift after your death. This is because gifts are considered to be part of your estate for inheritance tax purposes.

Introducing The Salford Cottage at The Black Horse

The Salford Cottage at The Black Horse near Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire has welcomed its first guests. The new Cotswolds pub group, Lionheart Group, opened the doors of this new venue, just outside of Chipping Norton, and has undergone extensive refurbishment to reinstate this precious asset at the heart of the community. The kitchen will serve all-day lunches, pub classics and a relaxed dinner menu set around the grill and rotisserie - sourced within 20 miles where possible. The Salford Cottage, a stylish bedroom suite, will host overnight guests in this enviable village location. The opening is the first of a pipeline of new openings for Lionhearth Group over the next 12 months.

Propress launches the MINI Clothes Steamer - perfecting for wedding dresses!

Professional and long-established British fabric steamer manufacturer, Propress, has unveiled the Propress MINI Handheld Clothes Steamer. A revolutionary product that combines over 40 years of steaming expertise with cutting-edge technology, the MINI allows users to say goodbye to the days of wrestling with an ironing board and hello to the future of garment care with beautifully crease-free clothes, whether at home, in the office, or on-the-go.

The Propress Mini Handheld Clothes Steamer (£110) is available in Arctic Grey, Idol Blue or Vintage Pink from the Propress website. It heats up in under a minute offering the convenience of crease-free clothes with a simple touch of a button. Its efficiency and ease of use make it a must-have for every fashion-savvy individual, plus it is versatile enough to treat various home fabrics from curtains to bedding, and is ideal for weddings or even hoteliers.

De Vere Wokefield Estate wins Gold Green Tourism award

De Vere Wokefield Estate, a mansion house hotel near Reading, has been awarded gold accreditation in the Green Tourism Certification Programme, which recognises the commitment of tourism businesses which are actively working to become more sustainable. De Vere Wokefield Estate focuses on three key pillars to help improve sustainability, which include its day-to-day operations, the people at the heart of its community, and its valued supply chain. De Vere Wokefield Estate is proud to now use 100% renewable energy and relies on the combination of biomass, wind, hydro and solar, to power the hotel. Earlier this year De Vere Wokefield Estate also unveiled new electric vehicle charging points, available for guests to use during their stay.

Winter wedding inspiration from leading wedding planner

Matthew Shaw, founder & creative director at sauveur. shares his winter wedding inspiration for those looking to tie the knot at this time of year. Winter weddings have grown hugely in popularity. The festive season can be a truly magical time of year to host a wedding and stand out from the crowd but it does bring its own set of considerations for the planning. Whilst the key areas of your wedding planning will be the same as a wedding in any other month, there are a few different elements to consider to create an incredible winter wedding celebration.

How to kick-start your wedding planning

Samantha Gilchrist, Co-Founder and CEO of the UK's largest wedding venue collection, The Gilchrist Collection, shares her top tips on how to kick-start your wedding plans, taking away any unnecessary stress and disappointment in preparation for that special day. Set a Date - possibly the most important aspect of planning as getting this date in the diary will allow you to move forward with your plans. When choosing a date, it's worth carrying out a simple checklist to help you nail that day down such as: Think if there is a time of year you both always wanted to get married in? A season you both love or a month that is special to you is a great starting point.

Find County Wedding Magazines on YouTube

We're never satisfied when it comes to providing our readers with enough wedspiration, which is why we've created our very own County Wedding Magazine YouTube channel! You'll find tons of big-day ideas, from venue tours to dream dresses, then take a peek behind the scenes of styled shoots featured in our titles past and present. We're adding more content all the time, so why not hit SUBSCRIBE so you never miss a thing? Simply head to YouTube and search for 'County Wedding Magazines' now

A more sustainable, ethical, and zero-waste approach to weddings

Reports suggest that 4,910 tonnes of unrecyclable plastic was used up and left behind at British weddings last year, with this in mind, 77 Diamonds has released a planning guide to promote a more sustainable, ethical, and zero-waste approach to weddings. Individually, one wedding can produce as much as 20kg of plastic waste. What's more, the black bags used to collect the rubbish are themselves potentially harmful. They can take as many as 90 years to break down under the ground. But it's not just plastic which has an impact. Food wastage is also a common theme for most weddings.

5 unique winter wedding trends for 2023

From décor inspired by the season's natural beauty to creative ways to keep your guests warm, wedding supply experts Aura Print have searched TikTok to bring you the top five quirky winter wedding trends for 2023.While traditional wedding fayre often includes champagne toasts and wine, a hot chocolate bar offers a warm, decadent, and customisable alternative for the colder months. As the evening progresses and temperatures drop, guests can enjoy a sweet treat to keep them going on the dance floor. For younger guests or for those who don't drink alcohol, a hot chocolate bar also provides a great non-alcoholic option. With over 112.7 million TikTok hashtag views, the hot chocolate wedding bar trend is set to take the winter wedding season by storm!